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[quote user="Paul Milenkovic"] [quote]Amtrak, as an example, has to weigh the cost of generating the data, i.e. equipment status information, against the utility of the information. Who is going to use it? For what? How will the data impact management decisions? Is making the information public relevant to the operation of the business?[/quote]You betcha this information is important.  It is important to Wisconsin DOT trying to get a fifth coach for the Hiawatha; it is important to WisARP, which has made adding a second Chicago-Minneapolis train a priority and needs to have something intelligent to say about feasibility to the politicians who could make this happen.  It is important to Illinois, which expanded its in-state service using existing Amtrak equipment.  It is important to California, where there was talk of CalTrans coming up with the money to refurbish such cars to expand the Amtrak California service.[/quote]If the request for information comes from a source that has some skin in the game, e.g. Winconsin DOT, then Amtrak should make it available if they have it.  If it incurrs an additional cost to produce it, the requester should pay for the information.  If the request comes from a fan group, Amtrak has no obligation to provide the information.  It might be good public relations, but if Amtrak responded to every request for information from fan groups, it would probably incur a significant incremental cost to do so.  One way to test the legitimacy of a request for information is to ask the requestor to pay the incremental cost associated with assembling and producing it.  This is what we did on "nice to know" requests.  Amazingly, many of the requests died when the requirement to pay for the information was put on the table.I have been posting to this forum long enough to realize that very few people stay on the originating topic.  No worries!
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